district9fandomcom-20200214-history
District 9 (film)
District 9 is a 2009 sci-fi film about alien refugees in South Africa. Plot The film opens with a documentary-style series of interviews that introduce the situation. An alien ship has come to a stop over the city of Johannesburg, South Africa. After hovering above the city for three months without any contact, the humans decide to take the initiative and cut their way into the ship. Once they enter, they discover a million or so aliens, all in a terrible state of malnourishment and sickness. They are later assessed as apparently being all "workers," with their leadership mysteriously missing. One theory suggests that the entire leadership had been wiped out by the disease that was going through the ship. The creatures were housed in a temporary government camp which, through overcrowding and militarization, eventually turned into a slum. This slum was known as District 9. The movie takes places 28 years after the aliens' first arrival. Patience over the alien situation had run out after the first few years so, control over them was contracted out to Multi-National United (MNU), a private company uninterested in the aliens' welfare. MNU stands to receive tremendous profits if they can make the aliens' advanced weaponry work. MNU, thus far, has failed in making the alien weaponry work because activation of the weaponry requires the presence of alien DNA in the genetic structure of the user. An MNU field operative, Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), is set with a task to move 1.8 million aliens to a new District 10 camp located some 240 km from Johannesburg, with the help from private security forces working for MNU for protection and force. Tension between the aliens and the humans comes to a head when Wikus, aftre handling an alien device, begins changing into one of the aliens after the device sprays a burst of a dark liquid on his face. A rapid transformation begins to occur, and shortly after exposure to the blacked liquid, Wikus's left arm mutates into a claw exactly like that of a "prawn" -a derogatory name for the aliens. Wikus is taken into custody and a series of tests and experiments are performed on him, revealing that he is capable of operating alien technology since he now has alien DNA. The scientists discover that his DNA is currently "in balance" with the alien DNA, which is gradually taking over. It is concluded that they should harvest his body for biological material at this critical point, to have the greatest chance of replicating his ability to use alien technology in other humans later. However, during an attempted vivisection Wikus escapes after overpowering his captors and flees from MNU. While on the run from MNU, Wikus is forced to seek refuge inside of District 9 by hiding inside of a run-down shack. The next morning, the effects of the transformation are more evident because Wikus now has a need to eat cat-food. The aliens love to eat catfood because, to them, it acts like cat-nip, except more intense. After eating the cat-food, Wikus realizes even more what is happening to him and decides that the only thing he can do is cut off the alien arm. After only chopping off the thumb, he decides that it isn't worth it. He then gets a call from his wife, which is being monitored by MNU. After finding his location, Wikus has to hide out again. He then hides in the shack that belongs to an alien known as Christopher Johnson, who is the same alien who created the alien device that infected Wikus. The device contains fuel that Christopher scavenged from space craft parts scattered around District 9. Although initially hostile towards Wikus, Christopher eventually agrees to assist him reverse the transformation. Christopher can undo the mutation by getting Wikus aboard the mother ship hovering over Johannesburg. To do so requires the contents of the alien device (fuel) which Wikus confiscated. Wilkus manages to steal some alien weaponry from a Nigerian criminal gang also living in District 9 and with Christopher's help they launch an assault on MNU and successfully retrieve the fuel sample required to power up a shuttle and return to the mother ship. While there, Christopher discovers that MNU have been experimenting on his people. Wikus and Christopher return to District 9 and Christopher admits the process involved to cure Wikus could take up to three years to complete, due to Christopher wanting to travel to his home world to seek help. Furious, Wikus knocks Christopher unconscious and powers up the ship himself. The MNU mercenaries target Wikus and destroy one of the shuttles engines, causing it to crash land inside District 9. A battle between the mercenaries and a local group of thugs begins to rage, both groups want to capture Wikus; MNU want to dissect him to gain an understanding of how to use alien technology and the Nigerians believe if they eat his alien arm they will gain his power. In the end of the battle, the thugs manage to capture Wikus. Right before his arm is chopped off, Christopher's son Little CJ gains control of a mechanized battle suit from inside the crashed shuttle and helps free Wikus. Wikus then enters the alien walker battle suit and defends Christopher. Wikus' suit is then shot by heavy fire, and causes him to fall down. As he is down, he convinces Christopher to return to the shuttle with his son. Before separating, Christopher promises Wikus he will return in three years time to help him. Christopher then boards the shuttle and activates a tractor beam which brings the shuttle back to the mother ship. As the shuttle docks with the mother ship, Wikus is shot in the back and the walker suit ejects him from the cockpit after taking critical damage. Wikus drags himself away from the leader of the merceneries, but is quickly caught. Just before the mercenary shoots Wikus, aliens burst out of the surrounding slums and dismember the mercenary. The film concludes with another series of interviews and news broadcasts, showing the human's view on the events that unfolded. An interview with Wikus's wife reveals a small metal rose was left on her doorstep (Wikus strongly believed a gift is worth more if it was made personally). She mentions that her friends have told her that it could not have possibly been Wikus, but she believes that he is out there somewhere. An alien with a bandaged left arm is then seen standing in a junk yard inside District 9 fashioning a small metal rose out of scrap metal implying that Wikus is indeed alive, his transformation from human to alien is complete, and is still awaiting Christopher's promised return.